Anjana Bala is a medical anthropologist whose research concerns the psyche's relationship to ecologies, art, and the body. 

Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Anjana's doctoral thesis (2022) investigates madness, bodies, and local art therapeutics. Her research explores how psychiatric and philosophical categories—hallucinations, psychosis, and madness—are intertwined with objects, matter, and bodies, that is, “things” in the world. Her current and future research analyzes aesthetics, ecology, and the governance of trauma.

Anjana is also a dance artist and regularly performs and tours in the UK. As an artist, she is interested in how bodies are transformed by space, place, and histories and how this impacts practices of movement. She also conducts community art workshops.

Education:

PhD in Medical Anthropology - UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco 

MSc in Medical Anthropology - University College London

BA in Human Biology - Stanford University